Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

Senator Bannon is not much given to understatement. He said the truth hurts but it tends to bounce harmlessly off him. However, I am glad his colleague, Senator Feighan, paid tribute to the efficacy of the community enterprise boards, which was one of the chief economic initiatives of the Longford Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds. I am glad Fine Gael paid tribute to it.

The Minister referred to investment amounting to €57 billion, which is exceptionally impressive, particularly when one bears in mind that this is provided overwhelmingly from our own resources. Tribute should also be paid to the division of the State into two super regions to prolong the benefit of Structural and Cohesion Funds. When the deadline for using the funds expires, they will have been fully spent and the BMW region will get every cent it is due. The region, like the southern and eastern region, is diverse. For example, County Louth probably has the best infrastructure in the State and it is highly developed, as is County Laois, which has excellent infrastructure links. Equally, the south east is near the bottom of the list. One of the purposes of the division of the State was to give increased grants to the BMW region compared with elsewhere. According to the IDA, nearly 9,000 jobs, 17% of the total, were created between 1996 and 1999, whereas 15,545 jobs, 24% of the total, were created between 2000 and 2005. The strategy, therefore, has clearly succeeded in its objective of increasing the proportion of jobs created in the BMW region.

The Minister of State noted the significant degree of convergence which has taken place. The increase in GDP per capita in the region from 74.2% to 92.5% of the EU 25 represents substantial progress. Similarly, there is now little difference in unemployment rates, with the labour force in the BMW region growing as fast as or faster than the south and south-eastern regions.

GVA per capita, which was mentioned by Senator Bannon, is not a good measure. Three years ago, County Tipperary had the highest GVA per capita of anywhere in the country, largely due to the output from Merck, Sharpe and Dohme. It did not mean that the people in that county were wealthier than those of other counties.

A considerable emphasis has been put on transport. It is important to connect up the national rail network and a demand clearly exists for local and regional rail services. In my own region, the Limerick to Ennis line is used for that purpose and the Limerick to Waterford line is being developed. I am glad the Minister of State made reference to the western rail corridor because that will make an important contribution once Galway is linked up with Shannon and Ennis. The people of Shannon should not allow themselves to be fobbed off with a bus link from Newmarket-on-Fergus.